


Code: Red

by ghostkids



Series: CODE [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has ADHD, Attempted Forced Identity Reveal, Autism, Autism Spectrum, Autistic Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Autistic Jeanne Autry (Original Character), Autistic Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bad Reporters, Blood, But No Hawkmoth, Chat Noir Is So Done, Civilians Helping Heroes, Everyone Loves Chat Noir, Everyone Loves Ladybug, Everyone Who Has To Deal With This Situation Is Tired, Except For This Reporter Apparently, F/F, F/M, Forced Identity Reveal, Heroes Day, Heroes Interacting With Civilians, Heroes Interacting With Police, Heroes Interacting With Reporters, I can't stop, Jeanne Autry (Original Character) Has ADHD, Jeanne Is So Done, Jeanne Is Tired, Ladybug Is So Done, M/M, Many Regrets, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Has Anxiety, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Has Dyspraxia, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Speaks Chinese, Minor Injuries, More Trauma, Multi, OT4, OT4 endgame but like, Plagg Being Plagg, Plagg Is So Done, Plagg Is Tired, Police Helping Heroes, Reporter Uprising, Secret Identity, Serious Injuries, So many tags, Supportive Tikki, Tikki Is So Done, Tikki Is Tired, Too Much Trauma, Torture, Trauma, Violence, adrien agreste | chat noir has depression, codes, forced detransformation, headcanons, i don't speak french so PLEASE correct me if google translate did something wrong (it probably did), injuries, just sadness, ladybug has regrets, like really bad, lots of headcanons, lots of trauma, much use of google translate, not yet, okay tagging this as being very violent because YIKES, so many headcanons, so many injuries, starts off slowly, too many tags help, vengeance, very in progress, yes she has adhd and autism now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 17:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17064002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostkids/pseuds/ghostkids
Summary: Ladybug is in trouble. Jeanne is vindicated. Everyone else is panicking. But at least they can call a Code Red.(This is exactly why they needed these codes in the first place.)





	1. Prologue: Code

L'unité d'intervention d'Akuma, the Akuma Response Unit, is new. Formed just two weeks ago new, in fact. And already, Jeanne can tell that things need to change starting two weeks ago.

“We need a code,” she tells her superiors, adamant, after things go wrong for the first time. “A set of codes so we can tell each other what’s going on without taking up crucial time.”

No one else seems to agree. She goes away, fuming and more determined than ever to get them using codes during attacks. It only makes sense, after all. Codes are short, simple, easy to understand so long as you aren't trying to use too many of them at once. She might be almost too obsessed with codes, but surely, surely someone else can see the benefits of having a code that they can use during attacks when speed and simplicity are key.

After the third time, however, she can tell they are starting to see her point. An officer is grazed by flying debris while trying to communicate a situation in progress. He isn't seriously injured, and Ladybug's Miraculous Cure makes short work of the injury, but Jeanne brings up the subject of the code again later that day and she gets a nod.

"If you have an idea, let's hear it," he says.

She pulls out a thick notebook and plops it on the table. He blinks, startled, but doesn't say a word as she starts to explain.

 

***

Jeanne, much to her surprise, gets everyone to agree to using the Code, except for the heroes themselves.

Somehow, one or both of them are always unavailable when Jeanne tries to talk to them. She knows no one is to blame. But it's frustrating to watch how many times things could have gone terribly wrong only to be narrowly averted, when the situation could have been avoided in the first place.

She knows she just has to keep trying.

At last, she succeeds.

"Chat Noir! Chat Noir!"

Jeanne is running and yelling. Not dignified, she knows, but if she doesn't run and yell to get his attention, she knows Chat Noir will leave like both heroes always do. Ladybug has already left, having used her Lucky Charm earlier in the battle. Jeanne wonders what the connection is between using their powers and having to leave― _no, no, Jeanne, focus, that's not the point now, think about that later―_

She can see him starting to pull away from the crowd to give himself room to vault away. She has to get to him before that happens. But he's already turning to look for her, his cat ears perking up in surprise as he hears her call his name. _  
_

"Yes?" he says, twirling his baton absentmindedly. He's looking in her direction but his gaze flickers up to the rooftops and she can tell he's already preparing to leave.

"Can I talk to you?" Jeanne gasps, completely out of breath. She really should be in better shape. She resolves to start working out. Tomorrow. Or maybe the day after... but she needs to focus, because he needs to leave soon and he's already edging back, his boots scraping roughly against the pavement.

"Sure. I can stay for..." He glances at his ring, considering. "Two minutes? Is that long enough?"

"That's perfect," says Jeanne, straightening.

She explains the Code and why she wants to use it, and at the end of her (more-than-slightly rushed because she absolutely doesn't do short and simple) explanation, Chat Noir nods.

"I think having the Code is a good idea. I'll talk to Ladybug about it and see what she thinks."

"Thank you," Jeanne says, relieved, some of the tension seeping from her shoulders. "Thank you."

"No, thank  _you_ ," Chat Noir says, bowing slightly. Before she can even register the tensing of his muscles, he leaps up into the rooftops and vanishes against the bright blue of the sky. 


	2. Shatter

_She remembers the terror of having a weight suddenly dragging her down. Her yo-yo shoots out as she makes an effort to stop the fall, earrings beeping a frantic, final warning. A hand tugs sharply at her earlobe, and she's already seconds away from being her civilian self, but her attacker reaches for the spotted earring and_ yanks _it free,_ _and she can't stop it in time.  
_

_She hears the screams of the crowd still echoing in her head as she tips sideways, trying to correct her path even as her transformation is ripped away from her. Out of control. Red light flashes around her and the video cuts out for a second, static flickering across the screen._

_It’s more terrifying to watch from an outside perspective, if that’s even possible._

_She remembers hitting the ground, remembers her attacker falling on top of her, the weight and the impact stealing the breath from her lungs. Her world goes dark, a strange ringing in her ears as the earring rolls from the reporter's limp hand._

_She doesn't remember anything else._

 

 ***

 

Everything is bright. Too bright. Her head pounds with every panicked gulp for air through shattered lungs. The world breaks in front of her, fragments of blurry light like sun flashing off water. She can't see. She can't- She can't even move. Her fingers twitch but her arms won't respond to her desperate commands. She has to get up. She has to get up, she has to. But she can only flop weakly, staring up into the sun, every inch of her skin on fire.

“Code Red! Code Red!” she hears the officers shouting from far away.

So that's why they needed the Code, she thinks, her thoughts shattered to pieces.

“Oh God!” someone shrieks. “Oh my God! Is she okay?”

“Everyone stay back! Just stay back!” someone else shouts in frustration.

Everything is a blur of noise, but one voice cuts through the fog. "Ladybug, copy? Do you copy?"

She copies. The world is underwater, but she can hear the commotion, fear in the voices circling around her. She can make out snippets of conversation. Ladybug gasps a breath through a throat that feels like sandpaper, tries to speak but her tongue is rubber and heavy in her mouth and the only words that come out sound nothing close to understandable. Her feet and her fingers have gone numb like pins and needles. She tries to move and only flops weakly to one side. She's too fuzzy to be alarmed yet, but that familiar panic of not being in control starts to build in her chest.

"Identity... compromised," says a voice in her ear. "Where's... we need Chat Noir..."

When she turns her head to look for them, the sharp plastic in her ear shifts. She realizes that the voices must be coming from there. Whose identity's been compromised? That's a big problem. She can't even think. Everything hurts. Her head throbs. She remembers now. She fell. Her yo-yo failed. She fell, and that's why she hurts. But why did her yo-yo fail? She doesn't remember. That's a big problem. That's an even bigger problem. Ugh.

"Nnn... ugh... Tikki?" she groans, coughing weakly, throat finally gaining some function. She can't say anything else. She can't. Nothing works. Her body isn't working right and she needs her kwami. She needs Tikki to explain to her what happened, because nothing makes sense now. Her arms don't want to work right. That must be why moving takes so much effort.

She brings her hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun, knowing even as she does that the action won't stop her splitting headache. Ladybug brings one hand to press on the rim of her glasses, shielding her face.

 _Her hand is bare, not covered by her suit._   _She's wearing glasses, not goggles._

Her heart freezes in her chest. She can't be- Not like this. _No. No. No no no no no._ Not here, not out in the open, not where anyone can figure out who she is. 

Something glints darkly in front of her. The earring. She reaches for it with a shaky hand. It hurts to move and it hurts worse to put the earring back where it belongs, but she needs to transform. Fast.

 

***

 

Silver flashes in the sunlight. She doesn’t know if the reporter actually wants to kill her or just wants to reveal her, but the knife flashes again and again and she knows that if she fails to get away she’s as good as dead. Somehow, she hasn't been caught yet but her legs are heavy and her lungs are burning.

“No! Let me go!” Ladybug howls, terrified, breaking her silence as her attacker catches her arm.

Ladybug's efforts to break free are futile.

_She isn't transformed, oh Dieu, she isn't transformed -_

and there's the knife -

the point of the knife is at her throat and she can feel it with every shallow gasp for air, razor-sharp and much too close.

" _Tikki_..." she wheezes desperately, something shifting _broken wrong bad_ somewhere in her rib cage. Everything is blue. The sky is so blue. The faces around her blur, her focus only on the hand sharp in her hair and the knife cold at her throat. " _Tikki, help..._ "

" _Tikki, transformez-moi!_ "

" _No wait-!_ " Tikki cries. She isn't ready. Marinette isn't ready. Too late.

(On the other end of the line, Jeanne hears only the command, then a panicked warble that sounds far too much like one of those songs her niece listens to, so much so that it makes her ears ache.)

The suit forms around her, the light too slow, too stuttering. The transformation feels wrong, off in a way she can't describe. She hopes Tikki isn't hurt, but she can't check now. She has to get away first, and quickly, before the transformation fades.

***

 

Ladybug lurches to her feet as the last of the transformation settles around her. As she stands, her legs wobble under her. She seems to be trying to find some way she can get away, but Jeanne doesn't like how she's carrying herself like she could fall at any moment.

“Ladybug! Ladybug! Over here!” Jeanne calls, still trying to push her way through the crowd. They aren't moving for some reason, so she shoves harder. "Come on, _move,_ damn it!"

Ladybug seems to regain her bearings all at once. It all happens so quickly. She goes from gazing around with glassy eyes to looking sharply for an exit. She bolts, and her attacker lunges, overbalancing herself in a desperate attempt to get the hero before she can get away. Ladybug takes one stumbling step towards Jeanne and then the reporter is on her, grabbing and pulling everywhere her desperate hands can reach.

Ladybug lurches forward, trying to break free. Abruptly, she goes from pulling to pushing as she spins and twists in one last desperate attempt to get away.   

 

 

***

“Don't touch her,” says a voice that definitely does not belong to Ladybug. "Don't you dare touch her again." 

They're staring at her. Or not really at her, no, but at the situation. They must be. They have to be. She's part of the situation, but they're focused on the woman who made it a goal to hurt her. They told the reporter to stop and somehow she listened, but she's kept the knife up and -

Marinette blinks, gasping and dazed and hardly believing that the pain is gone, even for a second -

she's talking, the reporter is talking, but the words don't make any sense. None of the words make sense.

 

***

 

 

She's running. Jeanne is running, heart in her throat, lungs burning, because they _found Ladybug_. They found Ladybug and the situation isn't looking good.

The connection crackles with static. Jeanne hears noises behind the static, vague shuffling and the panicked wheeze of Ladybug's breathing, but nothing distinct enough for her to figure out what's going on or where they are or how she can help.

 

 

 

***

 "You want her?" the reporter says, eyes wild. "You'll have to come _get her_!"

They forgot about the knife. They always forget about the knife. The reporter's hand lifts-

[" _No!_ " Tikki shrills, voice still thrumming from the energy backlash of the forced detransformation. " _Marinette!_ "]-

and drives it straight into Ladybug's side.

 

 ***

 

Jeanne can't quite make out any of her features behind the heat shimmer of Something around her face. Magic, Jeanne assumes. She isn't stupid. She knows they have some kind of magic to keep their identities safe, but she didn't know their identity magic could work when they were in civilian form, if that's what the shimmer is. And what if it has a time limit? Jeanne doesn't want to know what will happen if the last remaining protection vanishes while Ladybug is still out in the open like this. Then her identity would be well and truly out to the entirety of Paris. No. She can't let that happen.

 

***

And where is she? Where is Ladybug?

 


End file.
